New Stripes

Any change in tradition, even a small one, sends reverberations down the marble hallways of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist stunned the place Tuesday when he showed up in a black robe with brilliant gold stripes on each sleeve. For generations, justices have worn plain black robes - a visible sign of their fierce neutrality.

Rehnquist sent word that he personally designed the new adornment - four inch-wide horizontal stripes per sleeve, situated midway between shoulder and elbow. He got the idea, he said, by watching the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, “Iolanthe.” A British lord chancellor is decorated that way, Rehnquist said.